"I'm the senior member of the MDC-T, so it follows that I'm the leader of the opposition,” said Dr Thokozani Khupe soon after being sworn in as MP together with six others.
"We're here to work for Zimbabweans to get jobs, food, functioning clinics and good schools. Parliament is a place for working for the people.”
Madam, please do not insult our intelligence because if you and your fellow politicians, across the political divide, ever honoured the promise to work for the people; then the country would not be up to its eyes in this man-made economic and political mess! Be rest assured you are going to be held to democratic account.
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic mess; that has left the country in economic ruins and millions living in abject poverty; and political paralysis; with corrupt, incompetent and murderous ruling party leaders and equally corrupt and incompetent opposition leaders; is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections.
The country has been stuck with this de facto Zanu PF dictatorship for 40 years and counting because the party rigged the elections. And from time to time the party has used wanton violence; abductions, beatings, rape and even mass murders to consolidate its hold on power.
It is therefore rich for you, Madam Khupe, or anyone else for that matter, to be promising the people of Zimbabwe jobs, food, functioning schools, etc. without first solving the problem of rigged elections and bad governance.
Zimbabwe had its best opportunity ever to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging that agreed the 2008 Global Political Agreement. The MDC was 2008 to 2013 Government of National Unity (GNU) partner tasked to implement the reforms.
MDC failed to get even one token reform implemented in five years of the GNU. Madam Khupe, you were a senior MDC leader, second only to Morgan Tsvangirai. Can you please tell us why did MDC failed to implement even one token reform?
SADC leaders warned MDC leaders not to participate in the 2013 elections without first implementing the reforms because Zanu PF would rig the elections. MDC ignored the warning and, lo and behold, Zanu PF rigged those elections just as SADC leaders said would happen.
In its 2014 party congress MDC resolved the party would not participate in any future elections unless the democratic reforms are implemented first. “No reforms! No elections!” party leaders, including yourself Dr Khupe, announced.
You and many other MDC leaders participated in the 2018 elections although not even one reform had been implemented. Why?
Many nations and organisations including the EU, USA and the Commonwealth condemned the July 2018 elections as a farce.
“The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” stated the EU Observer Mission final report.
“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards,” concluded the report.
The elections were not free, fair and credible and EU, the Americans, etc. have all been calling for meaningful political reforms to be implemented before the next elections.
You Dr Khupe participated in the July2018 elections; in the presidential race as a candidate and many of your party members contested in the parliamentary and local government races. Do you:
- agree the July 2018 elections were not free, fair and credible?
- agree the country must implement the democratic reforms to finally end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance?
- will you contest the 2023 elections if no reforms are implemented as you did in 2013 and 2018?
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